Fanfare
This short fanfare was requested for the RNCM graduation ceremony in December of 2024. I was at the time preoccupied with the exhilarating improvisations of the French organists Messiaen and Latry, which proved the starting point for this composition.
The abundant use of suspended chords without thirds was inspired by the start of Paul Dukas’ Fanfare pour La Peri, Debussy’s Fanfare from Le Martyr de St Sebastian, as well this chord’s place in organ fanfare improvisations and written works. They also have a unique feeling, sounding exciting and unstable in the right context, yet relatively consonant without a strong pull to resolve.
The harmony does not remain so open throughout, the whole piece being somewhat dissonant and acerbic. The trumpets and the trombones group off against one another, sometimes sounding together in forceful rhythmic unison, at other time complimenting with vigour. The tuba, being the odd one out in this group is treated rather like the organ’s pedal, its absence I believe making its thunderous presence more impactful. Motivic cells are repeated irregularly and developed across the piece. The trumpet solo from the middle interlude is referred to in canon at the climax of the piece, which I felt was a fitting treatment in a fanfare, which so frequently have canonic elements. The constantly shifting time signatures and off-beat insistence along with the bright yet astringent harmony make this a deviation from a lot of standard fanfare repertoire, but it retains enough of the common tropes and does not shy from paying off the tension it builds.